


Bop, Bop, Bop: Bop To The Top

by attackofthezee (noxlunate)



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, High School Musical AU, Jock Thor, Loki and Thor Are Not Related, M/M, Minor Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Oblivious Loki (Marvel), Theater kids are genuinely the worst, Thespian Loki, musical theater
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:48:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25779199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noxlunate/pseuds/attackofthezee
Summary: When Odinson shows up it’s with half the basketball team and a lot of noise that Loki absolutely did not consent to have in his creative space.His senses are being assaulted.“This is a sacred space,” He says and he can practically feel Bucky rolling his eyes behind him, but there are points to be made and Bucky’s judgement is not welcome here.“It’s an auditorium,” Thor says like he doesn’t comprehend Loki’s point, which is fair, because he is, after all, very very dumb. All those hits to the head doing jock things like football and smashing beer cans against his skull really can’t be helping.Aka a vaguely a High School Musical AU
Relationships: Loki/Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 135





	Bop, Bop, Bop: Bop To The Top

**Author's Note:**

> At some point I was like "what if I wrote a high school musical au and Loki was actually Sharpay Evans" and then I yelled about it for a few months and then finally did it. 
> 
> This is for [crinklefries/snuzz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crinklefries/) and [thesaltybitch/ariel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesaltybitch) because they're my favorite Thorkis and even though I've believed Loki and Thor are deeply in love since like 2011 they REALLY dragged me back into being like "wow they really ARE gay" enough that I could write this.  
> Happy Leo season Snuzz, I couldn't wait the week or so to post this for your birthday.

Junior year was  _ supposed  _ to be perfect. Loki would be starring in the Spring Production,  _ of course,  _ and he would be going on a beautiful vacation to somewhere with a warm beach and hot waiters who would serve Loki fruity drinks during spring break. Frigga would allow him to have one glass of wine with his meals because it’s a special occasion and Loki would,  _ of course,  _ pretend that this is the only time he touches so much as a drop of alcohol because he is, of course, the perfect son. 

Everything would be perfect. Everything  _ should  _ be perfect. 

Everything is  _ ruined  _ within the span of a week when Thor Odinson and his idiot friends get  _ caught  _ (like idiots who never learned to  _ cover their tracks) _ moving Jotunn Academy's gazebo onto Asgard High’s football field and instead of taking a suspension like a reasonable person Thor and his idiot friends are going to be performing in  _ Loki’s spring production.  _

Loki’s! Spring! Production! What deity decided that this should be Loki’s  _ life?  _

“It’s not  _ fair,”  _ Loki laments, as he throws himself into the chair in front of Frigga’s desk. There are many,  _ many  _ downsides to one’s mother being a counselor at one’s school, but there are also  _ many, many  _ benefits and Loki is taking advantage of one of them now to lament his frustration. 

“I think it’s perfectly fair,” Frigga says, flipping through a file and  _ clearly  _ not understanding the importance of this at all. 

“But Frigga-” Loki starts, attempting to reason with the woman. 

“Mom,” Frigga corrects, the routine well worn over the last year since Loki decided he was old enough to be on a first-name basis with his mother. 

“Yes, of course,  _ Mother _ . It’s  _ not  _ fair though. Why should Thor get to use  _ my  _ production as a get out of jail free card? How is it fair that we all have to try out and Thor Odinson just gets to waltz right in and get a part? It’s an injustice.” 

“I think it’s perfectly fair,” Frigga repeats, “Especially considering I’m the one who came up with the punishment. It’ll be good for you to accept a little change Loki.” 

Which, seeing as Loki is the sort of person who hates change unless he himself enacts it, is, of course, the  _ very last  _ thing that Loki wants to hear right then. He doesn’t shriek as he exits, no, that would be immature and unreasonable, but if he does let out a frustrated noise as he  _ very maturely  _ waltzes out of his mother’s office, well, that’s just beyond his control. 

🎶

When Loki was just a wee infant, barely a few weeks old, Frigga had made the wise and clearly correct decision of adopting Loki out of what he’s sure would have been a traumatic and tempestuous life of scrabbling alongside other orphans for whatever table scraps they could get. He’s watched a lot of Annie, he’s seen every remake of Cinderella the world has ever made, and his very first role in anything that wasn’t in his mother’s living room was a minor role in Oliver. He’s seen  _ all _ the orphan stories. 

He’s well aware that musicals are  _ not  _ real life, and in real life you don’t succeed as an orphan when you have the neurotic disposition of, well,  _ Loki.  _

When Loki was three, his mother had apparently gotten lonely or something else equally as dramatic and prone to causing bad decisions. It was in this state of abject misery despite the fact that she had a beautiful bouncing toddler in the form of Loki himself, that she went and brought home another- a  _ brother  _ for Loki. 

Loki had not been pleased. He’d spent a whole seven hours (practically forever for a toddler) refusing to speak or eat and showing his full disapproval for this plan. 

Despite their rocky start however, Bucky’s not the  _ worst  _ adoptive brother a guy could have. Loki had realized this at the tender age of five when he came up with the  _ genius  _ idea to treat their mother to a production of Cats in her very own living room, leotards and all, and Bucky made the  _ perfect  _ scene partner. 

He’s been Loki’s Partner In Things That Are Definitely Not Crimes, No Mother, Of Course Not ever since, which means he’s also blessed with the chance to hear all of Loki’s woes. 

“Oh god, are we discussing this  _ again?”  _ Bucky asks when Loki brings up said woes, stretching out in the sun by the pool, clearly not realizing just how privileged he is to be privy to the inner workings of Loki’s psyche. 

“We’ve been betrayed by our  _ own mother,”  _ Loki proclaims, wishing that his boneheaded brother would understand how dire this whole situation is, “These- these- these  _ jocks!  _ They’ll be in  _ our play  _ James.” 

“I don’t see why. There’s no rule they have to be on stage, pal, just that they have to be a part of the production. They can do set changes,” Bucky says, yawning as he rolls to make sure he’s getting tanned evenly. 

Loki blinks. 

Loki blinks again. 

“For once, you’ve said something  _ genuinely  _ intelligent.” 

“I know. You’d notice I do that more if you weren’t constantly dwelling in your inner monologue,” Bucky says and takes an obnoxious slurp of his drink. It’s bright pink and there’s an umbrella perched jauntily on the edge. 

“I notice plenty,” Loki insists and gathers his things so that he can retreat to the air conditioning of the greater indoors and escape Bucky’s judgmental eyebrows, “Don’t stay in the sun too long. You’ll turn into a lobster and then no one will be able to stand looking at you.”

🎶

When Odinson shows up it’s with half the basketball team and a lot of noise that Loki absolutely did not consent to have in his creative space. 

His senses are being  _ assaulted _ . 

“This is a sacred space,” He says and he can practically feel Bucky rolling his eyes behind him, but there are points to be made and Bucky’s judgement is not welcome here. 

“It’s an auditorium,” Thor says like he doesn’t comprehend Loki’s point, which is fair, because he is, after all, very  _ very _ dumb. All those hits to the head doing jock things like football and smashing beer cans against his skull really can’t be helping. 

“A.  _ Sacred. Space,”  _ Loki repeats and then turns and absolutely does not flounce off, he doesn’t care what Bucky says later when he recants this tale to their mother. 

Minutes later, Mr. Fury has rounded the cast up onto the stage and Thor Odinson’s obscenely bulky bejerseyed shoulders and  _ posse  _ of miscreants are much too close to Loki’s personal space. 

Adding salt to the wound that is this whole situation is the fact that Bucky is making cow eyes at Steve Rogers of all people. 

The  _ betrayal.  _

“Since you all have eyes, I’m sure you’ve all realized we have some new additions,” Mr. Fury starts.

“I really must object to this mockery that is being made of the institution of-” 

“Your objections are noted, and also ignored,” Fury interrupts before Loki can really get started. 

It’s truly unfortunate that thanks to his mother most of the staff has known Loki for nearly his entire life and feels comfortable treating him this way. Sometimes, he dreams of transfering schools to somewhere where no one knows his name, but then his sense of self preservation kicks in and he remembers he’d get eaten alive anywhere else.

He can see himself realistically. 

(Sometimes) 

He’s skinny, a little weird, and while he insists his limbs are elegant- most people compare them to  _ green beans.  _ He’s what some  _ might  _ call obsessive about his craft, and he once had a phase in middle school where he wore a cape and a handmade horned helmet. He grew out of it, blessedly, but  _ still.  _

He’d never make it. 

This is  _ all  _ Odinson’s fault. If Thor and his flock of idiots hadn’t held up some antiquated and frankly  _ archaic _ rivalry with Jottun Academy and then had the gall to get  _ caught  _ like the hulking imbecile he is then Loki wouldn’t have to be here, considering his chances of living through a year and some change at a different highschool. 

Loki will get his revenge on this slight against him. He’ll get it when they least expect it, too.

“Oh  _ god,  _ you’re gonna drag me into this aren’t you?” Bucky asks and Loki realizes that yes, yes he had said that last bit out loud. 

“If you weren’t making  _ cow eyes  _ over my  _ sworn enemy’s  _ ally you would be all for this,” Loki says cuttingly. Or at least he insists it’s cutting. Bucky doesn’t look nearly as phased as Loki would like. 

There are severe downfalls to knowing someone so long they get used to your ways. 

There are perks, absolutely. But also definite downfalls. 

“Rii- _ iiight,”  _ Bucky says, placatingly, but he’s doing that thing where he artfully tosses his hair over his shoulder in an attempt to waft his warm vanilla sugar shampoo in the direction of Rogers which means he absolutely isn’t taking this seriously, “Do you think Ma ever wonders if your personality is her doing, or if you were just born this way?” 

“At least Frigga didn’t find  _ me  _ under a rock” 

“You two,” Fury says, interrupting their sniping, “Did you hear any of what I said or were you focused on whatever antics you’re going to drive me insane with during this production?” 

“No, I wasn’t paying attention at all,” Bucky says at the same time Loki answers with, “Maybe if this theater department were run in a more dignified and competent way we wouldn’t  _ need  _ antics.” 

Fury rubs his temples and says something under his breath that Loki doesn’t care enough to try to parse out. 

“As I said, we’re moving the last round of auditions out from Friday to next Wednesday to give our new department members a semblance of a chance.” 

“ _ What _ ?” Loki is indignant, filled with the rage of a million leading women wronged.  _ Barbara Streisand  _ would  _ not  _ stand for this. “Why can’t they just be  _ crew?  _ It’s hardly fair for them to swoop in and take supporting parts from those who have worked so hard to get them.” 

“Because if they get to hang out backstage and shoot the shit for the next twelve weeks it’s not much of a punishment now is it? And also, because I said so. Now, all of you, pair off and go practice your audition pieces or  _ something  _ that isn’t bothering me.” Fury says, very much signaling the end of discussion as he sits down and pulls out a book, very blatantly ignoring all of them. 

“This is a nightmare,” Loki says. 

“Hi,” Bucky says to Steve Rogers who has somehow in the time Loki wasn’t paying attention to him ended up right in front of them- and is Bucky- oh god he is, he’s  _ twirling a piece of hair.  _

Loki slaps at Bucky’s hand, “Fraternizing with the enemy is strictly verboten.” 

“I’m sorry about him,” Bucky tells Rogers, “He thinks he’s Elizabeth Taylor and is twice as dramatic.” 

“Like the actress?” Rogers asks and rubs the back of his neck in a way that Loki can tell is probably, unfortunately very cute to people who aren’t named Loki but  _ are  _ named James Buchannan for some god awful reason. 

Bucky doesn’t answer, instead he commits a much deeper betrayal than flirting with the enemy and says, “C’mon, help me practice,” and drags Rogers off, leaving Loki  _ alone _ (in the sense that one can be alone in an auditorium filled with thirty other highschool students and one overworked teacher) with  _ Thor Odinson.  _

Odinson claps one behemoth hand on Loki’s shoulder and smiles a bright smile that makes Loki think of sunshine and a field- or maybe even a nice flowery meadow on a nice summer day- in the  _ worst  _ way. 

“Looks like they’ve abandoned us. Come, Loki, help me pick out an audition piece.” 

“This is not how being mortal enemies works!” Loki tries to protest, but Thor doesn’t seem to heed his words, which really bodes ill for the next few months of Loki’s life. 

🎶

“I hate him. He is my mortal enemy and I won’t forget the way he’s wronged me. I  _ will  _ get my revenge,” Loki says, sincerely and with feeling as he stabs a green bean at dinner with all the viciousness he would like to stab Thor Odinson’s face. His  _ stupid, smiling, cherub face. _

“I think I’ve found my soulmate,” Bucky says, also sincerely and with feeling. Unfortunately. 

“That’s very nice for both of you, dears,” Frigga says in a way that very clearly communicates that she is, in fact, not at all sure if this is nice for either of them and that she might be considering sending Loki to therapy again. Last time it had ended in tears, but Loki supposes Frigga thinks there might be a chance that there’s a therapist out there who Loki  _ can’t  _ make cry. He doubts it, but statistically he assumes there has to be one.

Maybe somewhere like Russia. He’s heard they’re of a stronger stock there. Romanoff insists on it enough that maybe it’s true. 

“Loki?” His mother asks, waving her hand in front of his face. 

“I’m not going to Russia, you can’t make me! I mean- what did you say Frigga?” 

“ _ Mom,”  _ Frigga corrects, with a look that manages to communicate just how much Loki is starting to wear on his own mother’s patience. 

“Yes, sorry,  _ Mother.”  _

“I asked how you thought auditions were going to go?” 

“Well. I mean, of course they’ll go well and I’ll get the lead.  _ Why _ ? Did you hear something? Is there reason to think I won’t?” Loki asks, already trying to figure out who could possibly beat him for the lead and how to incapacitate them in time for auditions. Is it Amora? If Amora sweeps in to steal Loki’s glory he  _ swears  _ he’ll get his revenge. It can’t be  _ that  _ hard to convince her parents she needs to be sent to rehab. Again. A few teary eyed “We’re just so worried about her”s and a pointed “Backsliding is a perfectly normal part of the recovery process” would probably do it. 

“Darling,” Frigga says, reaching across the table to still Loki’s hand where without his knowledge he’s been stabbing his fork repeatedly into the chicken breast on his plate, “I haven’t heard anything except how  _ wonderful  _ you’ll be at the part.”

“Oh,” Loki says, and then, “Well of course that’s what you’ve heard. Yes. Everything is going to plan. Of course it is. There are no wrenches in my road whatsoever.” 

Later that night Loki is reminded that  _ Bucky  _ might be the wrench in his road. 

They’re sprawled out on their stomachs on Loki’s bed, Loki brushing up on his Sun Tzu just in case he needs to wage full on war against Amora. He knows his mother said she hadn’t heard anything but that doesn’t mean he should let his guard down. 

Bucky is at the end of the bed, a depuffing eye mask beneath each eye and a horrifyingly pink magazine open in front of him. 

“Gemini,” Bucky starts with his most dramatic tone of voice, reading Loki his horoscope against his will, “Is it your imagination or are birds actually singing your beloveds name-” 

“No. Absolutely not. Don’t start with me  _ James Buchannan,”  _ Loki demands, grabbing a pillow and waving it threateningly at Bucky. 

“Or maybe it’s just your  _ heart  _ singing their name-”

“I’m going to get Mother to send you  _ back to where you came from-” _

“Either way, Gemini, for better or for worse, you’ve become fixated on someone-” 

“Oh god, stop,  _ please, _ ” 

“And it’s time to take a chance and put yourself on the line to get that hottie you’ve been eyeing.” 

“I don’t think a jury would convict me if I accidentally disposed of you,” Loki says.

“They would,” Bucky says, far too confident. “And they’d probably side with me about how your hatred for Thor is more about how you subconsciously want to climb him like a tree than anything else. It’s okay to embrace it Loki. I’m sure he’d let you. His arms look very capable of holding you up.” 

“I-  _ What?  _ That’s  _ ridiculous.  _ Preposterous. I’ve never heard anything so blatantly untrue.”

Loki’s fully prepared to get himself into a lather on this one and really let Bucky have it but Bucky, the  _ traitor,  _ just rolls off of Loki’s bed, takes his magazine, and leaves with a “Su _ -uuure.”  _

Loki, with all the drama of a sixteen year old thespian, dramatically rolls over and dramatically pulls his pillow over his head so that he can scream into it,  _ dramatically _ .

🎶

Thor and Loki end up getting the lead roles. 

In an act of injustice that Loki will  _ not  _ stand for, Bucky, his brother, the only person on this planet outside of Frigga who Loki can  _ tolerate, _ only gets a supporting role. 

“It’s fine. Juggling cheerleading and a lead role would have been a little much even for me,” Bucky says when he finds out. 

“I told you not to do the jazz squares James, and  _ still,  _ you did th- Wait, what? When did you become a  _ cheerleader?”  _ Loki asks, shocked by this news that his brother- his dear, beloved, brother who surely tells him everything, has been doing something without Loki’s knowledge. 

Bucky blinks. 

Then blinks again. 

Finally, when Loki is about to give up and flounce off without an answer he says, “Last year, you idiot.” 

“Are you living a whole double life without my knowledge?” Loki asks, and then grips Bucky by his shoulders, “Blink twice brother, if you need me to rescue you from it.” 

“Loki, I need you to hear me when I say this,” Bucky says seriously, taking Loki’s face in his hands and making him look at him, “I really think Mom found you on another planet.” 

And then he walks away. 

And,  _ huh _ , he joins up with a group of cheerleaders in red and white uniforms. Apparently he  _ is  _ a cheerleader. That does make the uniform Bucky sometimes wears make a bit more sense. Loki had been incredibly close to asking whether Bucky thought that was a particularly wise fashion choice. 

“I couldn’t tell whether that was two blinks or not!” 

“That was kind of pathetic,” Wanda says, appearing seemingly out of nowhere to haunt Loki’s nightmares with her twenty-seven pounds of eyeliner and cheap box hair dye. 

“When you get ready in the morning does a tornado of Hot Topic merchandise lift you up and deposit you here?” Loki asks, truly wondering. 

Instead of answering Loki’s perfectly legitimate and well intentioned question, Wanda invades Loki’s  _ personal space  _ and takes Loki’s hand without his  _ consent,  _ flipping it so that his palm is up and she can peer at it. 

“I see something.” 

“What? What do you see?” Loki asks, maybe with a little more interest than he would like Wanda to realize he has. 

“That you’re an idiot,” Wanda says so seriously that it takes Loki a moment to even realize what she just said. 

And then, before Loki can get his revenge, she’s  _ gone. _

🎶

“I need your help practicing lines,” Thor says into the phone the moment Loki picks it up. Why did he pick up the phone? It’s 2020, who the hell answers a phone these days? Serial killers, that’s who. Serial killers and old women are the only people who answer their phones in 2020, and Loki is _neither._

“You’re my enemy,” Loki reminds Thor, because they’ve been co-leads for going on two weeks now and he’s not quite sure what part of being his enemy Thor Odinson has yet to understand. 

“Yes, yes, I know. We are mortal nemesises-” 

“Nemeses,” Loki corrects absently, clicking around on his laptop into an image editing program. Maybe he can create a smear campaign and get Thor disbanded from the production. No. Too much effort and too high a risk of getting caught. 

He exits the program only vaguely listening as Thor says “But think of it this way. If I look bad on stage, _you_ also look bad.” Which snaps Loki back to attention, unfortunately. “If you help me learn my lines, I might not drag you down with me. I could use your wisdom and experience. I _have_ been told that you’re the best actor in the theater department.” He’s hamming it up, Loki can _tell,_ because no one as attractive and athletic as Thor Odinson is worried about being brought down by a school play, but unfortunately it’s also working on Loki. Damn his love of flattery. 

“Hold one moment, please,” Loki says, covers the receiver and shoots a look at Bucky where he’s sprawled out on the living room floor, making a sign for a pep rally. Loki won’t go through the effort to confirm his suspicion, but he has a  _ deep  _ suspicion that Bucky’s sign has Rogers’ jersey number on it. “He just made an almost decent point,” He hisses at Bucky. 

“Of course he did,” Bucky says, not even looking up from his arts and crafts session. “Participating in sports at Asgard High requires a 3.0, so his brain isn’t exactly empty. He and the rest of the team just seem like it.”

“Even your beloved Rogers?” Loki asks, and he doesn’t sneer at the thought of anyone on the various sportsball teams having a brain, Rogers or Thor especially, but also he doesn’t  _ not  _ sneer. 

“Oh he has a 3.0, but he’s absolutely the dumbest person I’ve ever met,” Bucky says, somehow sounding dreamy. Disgusting. 

“I’m ashamed of you,” Loki tells him, incredibly serious, and then, moving on from the conversation and back to more pressing concerns, removes his hand from the receiver and tells Thor, “Okay. I’ll help you. But I have conditions.” 

“I’m sure you have a whole list,” Thor says, in the same sort of tone his mother says ‘ _ Oh, this again,’  _ when Loki starts on a tangent, which is incredibly rude of him. 

“I  _ do,  _ thank you. Because I, unlike a certain football team, go into things  _ prepared,”  _ Loki says, and then, “Meet me at lunch to go over my conditions and work on your lines. Tomorrow. You’ll bring me a chocolate milkshake as payment for services rendered.” And then, before Thor can say another word, Loki hangs up on him. 

Bucky looks very judgemental of Loki’s actions. 

“I will not be judged _ , thank you”  _ Loki says as he gathers his things and  _ gracefully storms  _ to his room. He absolutely does  _ not _ trip over his own shoes left in the middle of the hallway on the way, he doesn’t care what Bucky insists he has photographic evidence of later. 

🎶

Thor, much to Loki’s dismay isn’t particularly prompt when it comes to lunch time meetings.

He arrives, ten minutes and seventeen seconds into lunch period with a tray piled high with food and no entourage. It’s a strange sight to see anyone from any of the sportsball teams  _ not  _ surrounded by their fellow hulking, possibly, maybe, somewhat attractive in a certain and very specific lighting, idiots. 

“You know, the food here is absolutely terrible for you,” Loki says, even as he takes the milkshake Thor had brought him and slurps at it obnoxiously. 

“Is it though?” Thor asks, in that sort of tone people use when they already think they know the answer and the question is rhetorical, and then he folds a rectangular slice of pizza in half and proceeds to inhale roughly half of it. 

And listen, Bucky and Loki are both teenage boys _._ Or at least, Bucky is seemingly perfectly happy to _somewhat_ stick with the gender they slapped on him when he popped out of whatever strange woman he came from before Frigga adopted him, and Loki’s relationship with his gender identity is a little more ambiguous- a little more flexible- the equivalent of a deep, noncommittal shrug, even, but societally, he guesses, they’re dudes or whatever. Being raised by Frigga, however, and with some semblance of manners, means neither of them eat like a stereotypical teenage boy in a sitcom. 

Thor, however, seems to hoover up his food like he’s a gaping black hole sucking up neutron stars. It’s disgusting. Disturbing. A little impressive, almost. 

Loki takes a much more appropriate and dainty bite of his hummus wrap while he waits for Thor to chew- Swallow whole? Obliterate?- his food. 

“Did you bring your script?” Loki asks when Thor seems to pause for air in between sucking up food like a pig eating from a trough. Then, before Thor can answer him, Loki continues, “Nevermind, I brought a copy for you. I highlighted in green all the parts I think are of interest for character insights, in pink are the parts that I either think are going to be more difficult to memorize or are pivotal moments that deserve more time spent on them, and in the back I’ve compiled a section of character exercises.  _ Do them.  _ I don’t care if they seem silly, they’ll help.” 

There’s silence -or at least as much silence as can ever be found in a cafeteria full of highschoolers- as Thor stares at Loki like he’s some sort of alien from outer space. It gets Loki’s hackles up, which is why it’s perfectly justifiable when Loki snaps “ _ What?”  _

Thor doesn’t seem nearly as effected by the murder in Loki’s voice as Loki would like. “It’s just- You take this really seriously don’t you?”

He sounds almost… impressed? 

Loki is thrown. 

“Yes,” He says, sharply, and then working to sound at least a smidge nicer, “Yes, I do. Which is why you should do these character exercises and study your lines like a homeschooled teenager is forced to study the bible so that they can watch a half hour of non-educational television.” He pauses, and then, with the utmost seriousness, tells Thor, “Because if you ruin this for me I will destroy you and everything you love.” 

“Are you threatening Thor again?” Bucky asks, showing up with a tray full of half eaten food and Steve Rogers. 

“We’re  _ rehearsing,”  _ Loki says, “And were you eating lunch with  _ Rogers _ ?” 

“No,” Bucky says, at the same time that Rogers says, “Yep,” and earns himself a viciously dirty look from Bucky. 

Bucky slides into the seat next to Loki, and Steve into the seat next to Bucky and then- then they’re being joined by _others._ By Val (whose name Loki _knows_ is _Brunnhilde_ and he would let that spill to that entire school if he wasn’t 99.994% positive he would turn up dead in a ditch if he did) and Carol Danvers and fucking Sif and the self proclaimed _Warriors Three._

He doesn’t even know how they  _ all fit.  _

Loki can’t handle this. How has his peaceful, quiet table meant for studying lines with his mortal enemy become filled by  _ athletes and Bucky?  _

He’s going to expire. 

Perish. 

He needs a fainting couch. 

“I need a fainting couch,” He says, this time out loud. 

“Uh.” Thor says, and “I can move and you can faint into my spot?” 

“This is  _ your fault”  _ Loki accuses, and he hears the distinct mutter of  _ “Oh no, he’s got his crazy eyes,”  _ from Bucky and maybe when he responds with  _ “I do not have CRAZY EYES, JAMES”  _ it’s a little shrill, but also Loki is suddenly feeling  _ very  _ claustrophobic in what is supposed to be a safe space. 

Loki takes a breath. Loki takes  _ another  _ breath and rubs his temples like they do in movies. It seems to work for them, even if it doesn’t do fuck all for him right now. Then, with the grace of, well, Grace Kelly he gets to his feet. 

“I’m going to find Wanda and get her to hex you all,” He tells all of them, very seriously, “I’ve heard she’s a wiccan now or something, so I’m sure she can.” 

And then, with one last look to Thor and a “We’ll rehearse lines after school,” he bids adieu. 

**_~*~*~*~INTERLUDE~*~*~*~_ **

Bucky is dying. Death will come swift and in the form of a flaxen haired, very large, himbo football player named Steve. Steve who didn’t get a part in the musical, but happily volunteered to help paint sets and who is strangely, surprisingly, miraculously even more talented with a paint brush than he is on the field with a ball helping Asgard High win their 9th straight champion year. 

Steve who has paint smudged ever so delicately across the bridge of his strong, albeit crooked in a charming- because everything about Steve is charming- way, nose. 

Steve who looks up at Bucky from where he’s painting with eyelashes that are  _ so long and thick  _ they  _ touch the tops of his cheeks.  _

Steve who will be the  _ death of Bucky.  _ Goodbye to Bucky’s mother, he hopes she remembers all the years since she adopted him fondly. Goodbye to Loki, he hopes he gives Bucky’s favorite jacket the life it deserves after Bucky’s tragic death. 

“I’m not ready to die,” Bucky says, dramatically and accidentally aloud. 

“Excuse me?” Steve asks with big, concerned cornflower blue eyes. He looks like he belongs in a field somewhere, shucking corn and wrestling cattle. He also looks like he belongs in Bucky’s deepest, most secret bedtime fantasies, the sort that helped Bucky to discover that he’s very, very,  _ very  _ gay. Either is fine.

“You have paint,” Bucky says, “On your nose,” instead of what he wants to say, which is ‘Throw me over you strong, muscular football player shoulders and take me gently beneath the bleachers,’ or, more embarrassingly, ‘When you look at me like that I’m filled with the image of us walking home together while holding hands. We stop, because I’ve started to ever so delicately shiver, and you take off your letterman jacket and put it on over my shoulders. When we reach my doorstep, you kiss me gently, and then tell me to keep it because I look better in it than you do. I wear it to school and all 17 of my mortal enemies look on with envy because they can never, ever be me.’ 

“Oh,” Steve says, rubbing at his nose fruitlessly, “Did I get it?” 

Bucky is suffering. Bucky will continuously suffer. This is somehow, he’s sure of it, Loki’s fault and he  _ will  _ be whining to him about it at dinner tonight. 

“I-I’ve got it,” Bucky says, and uses his water bottle to wet a paper towel that he uses to delicately wipe the paint smudge off of Steve’s nose. They’re very close. 

_ Very,  _ very close. 

Bucky can see just how blue Steve’s eyes are, the little bit of green in the centers.

He can feel Steve’s breath. 

He can see the exact moment when Steve angles his head just a bit, shifts closer, moves like maybe he just might- 

Bucky bolts to his feet. 

“I have to… go do something cheerleading related? Find Loki before he starts planning world domination? Feed my hamster? That’s a lie I don’t have a hamster. I have to go. Yeah. I have to go.” And then, in a very not cowardly at all move, he flees.

**_~*~*~*~END OF INTERLUDE~*~*~*~_ **

  
  


Loki thinks he’s handling this whole situation fairly well. He hasn’t attempted to murder any of the sportsball players that have joined his musical. He’s even been meeting with Thor three times a week outside of regular rehearsal to go over their lines together and practice their duets. 

He’s impressed with himself for the lack of murder. He’s even more impressed with himself for not coming up with a way to catastrophically injure the entire football team so that they  _ can’t  _ perform. He thinks even Fury might be impressed with his control, though Bucky claims that’s just Loki projecting and that Fury isn’t impressed with anything, ever. 

“You’re doing great,” Loki tells the reflection of himself in the sparkly, bright pink mirror hanging in his locker, “You’re going to continue doing great and get into all of your top colleges after a fantastic showing as the lead in this play. Everything will be-” 

“Are you talking to yourself?” A dark, sinister, terrible voice that haunts Loki’s nightmares asks.

Loki doesn’t shriek, but he thinks that if he did he’d have a reasonable excuse, because when he turns around he comes face to face with  _ Hela _ . 

“I thought we got rid of you when you graduated?” Loki asks, grabbing the books for his next class and snapping his locker shut. Hela is  _ maybe,  _ possibly, quite probably the root cause of Loki’s initial disdain for Thor because no one genetically related to an entity of such pure and total evil can possibly be anything but  _ also _ pure evil. Granted, Thor has maybe,  _ possibly _ proven he’s not also the spawn of Satan and something else incredibly evil- an entire troupe of clowns? the personifications of socks with sandals? the GOP maybe?-, though he has certainly shown that he can be just as annoying in his own right. 

“I heard my baby brother is starring in the show this year, how could I miss out?” Hela asks and Loki can practically  _ see  _ the horns growing from her head that mark her as an agent of evil, “Besides, I’m on a break from NYU and I wanted to lend my services. You know the department’s performances were  _ always _ a hit when I was the one starring in them.” 

“Didn’t NYU kick you out?” Loki asks, not even deigning to recognize the implied insult in Hela’s words. 

“We had creative differences.” 

“I heard the creative differences were that you didn’t get a role you wanted so you tried to burn down the theater.” 

“Exactly. Creative differences.” 

Loki sniffs, hoping it conveys the full extent of his disdain and judgement. 

“If you’ll excuse me, I have a class to attend. Because I, unlike  _ some _ collegiate drop outs, actually belong here and am not creeping around a highschool like a creep that To Catch A Predator would only be too glad to find.” 

🎶

Natasha Romanoff is possibly Loki’s least favorite person in the whole of Asgard High’s theater department. It has nothing, he insists, to do with the fact that Bucky is outwardly fond of her when  _ Loki  _ is supposed to be the only person Bucky can tolerate, and everything to do with the fact that she’s a menace who thinks she knows everything. 

It is, therefore, incredibly unfortunate that she’s been instrumental in the process of composing the music for this year’s musical, is incredibly talented at any instrument put into her incredibly well manicured hands, and also, most egregious of all, Fury seems to show actual fondness for her. 

Fury shows fondness to  _ no one.  _

“You’re not hitting the right notes,” Natasha tells Loki partway through the mandatory-according-to-Loki extra rehearsal that Loki scheduled for him and Thor with Natasha. 

Loki suddenly regrets including Natasha  _ deeply.  _

_ “ _ Yeah, this isn’t working for me anymore. I’m sorry that I have to be the one to tell you this, but Thor and I will no longer be needing your services. You’re fired Romanoff,” Loki tells her seriously, with the utmost gentleness that is possible in his body. Or at least he thinks he does. Gentleness has never been his strong suit, and Romanoff is  _ evil  _ so it’s not like she needs it. 

“Oh thank god, if I had to hear you butcher my arrangement one more time I was going to kill myself,” Natasha says, gathering up her things and practically fleeing from the music classroom. 

“ _ It’s  _ **_our_ ** _ arrangement Romanoff! Ours!”  _ Loki shrieks after her. Except he doesn’t shriek. He’s so much more dignified than that, he doesn’t care that the disbelieving and vaguely embarrassed look on Thor’s face is currently saying otherwise. 

“So we’re done for today then?” Thor asks, shooting a glance towards the door. Loki can practically see his hopes of reuniting with Sif and Fandral and whatever the rest of their names are so that they can go throw a ball around or knock over an atm machine near Jotunn Academy or whatever else it is that jocks do. 

If he cared, he’d ask Bucky what jocks  _ actually  _ do since he seems to be five seconds away from being attached at the dick with one of them, but alas, he does not care.

Instead he says, “Of course we’re not done,” flatly and sits his ass down at the piano. “We don’t need Romanoff to rehearse, it just made things easier.” 

Thor seems to deflate, which is satisfying, and then he drops down onto the bench next to Loki, which is  _ not.  _

Loki ignores him, running through a couple scales absently before he plays the first few chords of his and Thor’s first duet. 

“That’s where you’re supposed to come in,” He says, when Thor completely misses his cue. He helpfully, and out of the goodness of his heart, plays the bit over again, and  _ again,  _ Thor doesn’t jump in. 

Because Thor, when Loki looks at him, is staring at Loki. If Loki didn’t know better, he’d say that Thor looks, well,  _ impressed.  _ Admiring. A little awed even. 

It makes him deeply uncomfortable. Not the admiration, of course, because Loki was born to be adored, but the fact that Thor is veering entirely off the script that Loki has created for him in his head. 

Loki doesn’t like it. 

(Loki maybe likes it a little bit, though he refuses to admit it, even to himself.)

“ _ What?”  _ Loki snaps, instead of analyzing any of what he’s feeling at this very moment. That can wait until he can find the time to psychoanalyze this whole thing on his semi-anonymous tumblr blog tonight. It’ll be  _ fine.  _ His followers will sympathise with him deeply, he’s sure. 

“I didn’t know you played,” Thor says, which does not account for the look Thor was giving him because Loki’s almost a million percent certain that there’s very little about Loki that Thor Odinson knows. 

“Yes, well, I am a man of mystery. I guess you knowing very little about me can be forgiven,” Loki says, “Or it can at least if you pay attention and get this duet right, because if you don’t I’m afraid I’ll be burying you in the sportsball field and using Bucky as my alibi. ” 

“So much hostility,” Thor says, though he seems distinctly less fearful of Loki’s wrath and distinctly more teasing than Loki would like. “We should get started then so I don’t face your murderous wrath.” With that he slings one obnoxiously large heavy arm over Loki’s shoulder and scoots in closer, and Loki really has no choice but to start. 

Thor’s arm stays around Loki’s shoulder for much longer than Loki can bring himself to consider without  _ actually _ dying. 

🎶

“We should go shopping,” Bucky says on a Saturday when Loki is truly beleaguered from the many,  _ many _ troubles that plague him, mainly in the form of the Spring Musical, how Hela is now assisting with it, and how the cast is filled with large sportsball players- one of which is leaving Loki in a state of  _ conflict  _ after one of his tumblr followers unhelpfully pointed out that maybe Loki’s psychoanalysis pointed to some lingering, hidden feelings of attraction for the giant blonde. 

Which is why Loki easily agrees to the outing, though honestly, he usually agrees to shopping without a reason. 

“What do you think?” Bucky asks, holding up a hideous blue blazer. 

“Ew, no, are you  _ trying _ to look like a young, aspiring senator’s campaign manager?” 

Bucky makes a face and puts the blazer back on the rack and Loki pats himself on the back mentally from saving his dear, adopted brother from a fashion suicide. 

“Do you think if I wore these at cheer practice Rogers would notice my ass?” Bucky asks after he’s led them into the athletic section despite Loki’s protests, holding up a pair of very short rainbow trimmed dolphin shorts. 

“I think if you wore those people two towns over would notice your ass,” Loki tells Bucky very seriously and Bucky nods thoughtfully before adding the shorts to the massive pile over his arm. 

Loki considers a pair of snakeskin leggings. They’re incredibly tacky, but in the way where they might be looping back around and bordering on fashionable, and Loki is just morose enough to make a bad fashion choice right now. A fit of ennui is how he’d ended up with a $300 swarovski crystal reptile themed bedazzled phone case, being morose seems likely to do even more damage. 

He can’t imagine what would happen if he was genuinely depressed. He’d probably end up with  _ bangs _ . 

“ _ No. Absolutely not.  _ Those are terrible _ ”  _ Bucky says, when he catches where Loki’s eyes have fallen, so Loki adds them to his pile. 

“It’s not my fault you don’t understand fashion.” 

“If you’re getting those I’m getting that shirt I wanted that you talked me out of,” Bucky threatens. 

“It’s sheer. With daisies.”

“Yes, and I  _ loved it,”  _ Bucky says, already leading the way back across the store. 

Loki follows, though he’s tempted to abandon ship and leave Bucky to make bad choices like buying bad clothing and wanting to make out with Steve Rogers by himself. 

“If you want to look like the plucky lead in a 90s romcom sent back to highschool for a journalism project only to fall in love with her teacher then I guess it’s fine,” Loki says, hoping his disdain is felt. 

“Do not talk to me about wise choices when you’re the one holding  _ snake. skin. leggings!”  _ Bucky says as he pointedly plucks the shirt off the rack. 

Loki, instead of responding to this particular bit of slander, declares “If we don’t pay right this instant and go get Orange Julius I’m going to die of low blood sugar and then my death will be on your hands.” 

🎶

“We should practice the kissing scene,” Thor says partway through one of their additional rehearsals, and Loki is immediately suspicious. Despite this, Thor  _ is  _ correct. They  _ should  _ practice. If only so that Loki can work on his performance and look like he’s actually smitten by the blonde oaf, and not like he’s disgusted by Thor’s very existence. 

(Despite his dear, naive, tumblr followers insinuation that he’s ‘crushing on’ Thor, he’s decided that no, it is actually still disgust that he’s feeling and the fact that he had to spend so much time with his enemy is clearly the root cause of any symptoms like sweaty palms. And the strange feeling that he gets in his stomach occasionally is clearly just an ulcer due to how tremendously stressful his life is. It’s the only answer that makes any bit of sense.)

“I guess that wouldn’t be the  _ worst  _ idea you’ve come up with,” Loki says after a long moment where he considers saying no just to be difficult. 

There’s a nagging part of him, deep, deep,  _ deep  _ down that is possibly shrieking like a 12 year old girl and no, Loki will  _ not  _ be acknowledging it. 

“All of my ideas are good ideas, Loki, you just haven’t realized that yet,” Thor tells him and Loki rolls his eyes in a manner that he hopes conveys his absolute disbelief with regards to that statement. 

“I find that impossible to believe, but whatever, let’s just get this over with. We could use the practice pretending we like each other,” Loki says, paging through the script and pretending to miss the look that flashes across Thor’s face at his words. He won’t consider the way it looks a little wounded around the edges, because then he might feel guilty, and Loki does  _ not  _ do  _ guilt.  _ A reluctant admission that maybe, he was possibly, not entirely right about something? Sure. A half hearted apology? Occasionally. Actual, verifiable, legitimate guilt? God, no. Focusing on the script is much,  _ much _ easier.

In the musical, this moment is the crux of their character’s relationship. 

They’ve just sang an impassioned duet where they simultaneously realize how they feel about each other- that what started as dislike has turned to something more, and now, they’re standing in the doorway to the academic decathlon, about to share their first kiss. 

“I’ve finally figured out the answer,” Loki says, his eyes leaving the script in his hand and moving to Thor as he throws himself into his character. Maybe this is where all the conflicting feelings come from. From acting with Thor. Loki does, after all, put his all into every role he plays. He’s by no means into Jared Leto-esque method acting, but still, the lines can blur between himself and a character. That’s absolutely a thing, he’s sure of it.

“The answer to what?” Thor asks, and the blocking calls for Thor to step closer, Loki knows that, but there’s still a coil of tension when he does. 

“To just how much I feel about you,” Loki says, and steps even closer. They’re practically nose to nose now, and Loki knows that they’ll need to work on this scene more, on playing more to the audience during it, but right now that doesn’t seem to matter too terribly much. 

“And how much is that?” At this point Thor’s hand has come up to rest against Loki's cheek, which is  _ not  _ in the script and Loki  _ will  _ be commenting on that later. 

“The limit does not exist,” It’s a terrible,  _ terrible  _ line and a blatant rip off of the cinematic masterpiece Mean Girls, but Loki can’t even dwell on that right now because the next moment Thor is kissing him. 

And oh god. The kiss is-

The kiss is  _ good.  _

Oh.  _ No. _

Thor’s lips are soft and insistent against Loki’s own, and Loki forgets, for a moment, that they’re acting as he surges upwards and gets a hand into Thor’s ponytail to kiss him back. 

Oh. Oh  _ no _ . This is  _ very, very bad.  _

He’s going to have to re-analyze everything he’s already analyzed. 

In the meantime, the parts of Loki that aren’t the small corner of his brain freaking out seems to be  _ very  _ okay with the current proceedings. And so does Thor, judging by the hand that is currently on Loki’s ass. 

Loki musters up all of his will power- which is not nearly as much as he’d like due to the current battle with teenage hormones- and pulls away, stepping out of reach of Thor and his very large arms and very nice hands and surprisingly soft lips.

“Yes, well, we’ll have to work on that,” Loki says, already grabbing his book bag and backing up, “We’ll need to get it to a point where it’s a little more G rated. This  _ is  _ a high school musical and not a community theater performance of RENT, after all.”

And with that, in a very not-cowardly-at-all move, Loki flees. 

🎶

  
  


Loki throws himself into the chair in front of his mother’s desk. 

“I’m troubled, Mother.” 

“Oh no, I didn’t have to tell you not to call me Frigga. This must be serious,” Frigga says, smiling fondly, and Loki curses himself for how much that comforts him. 

“I think I might like someone,” Loki says, sinking into his chair. It would be nice if for once in his life the universe actually worked for him and the chair swallowed him whole, but no, of course it doesn’t, because the entire universe is against Loki getting what he wants. 

Everything is always so terribly unfair.

“I can see how that would be troubling for you, dear.” 

“It’s  _ unfair,”  _ Loki complains, reaching forward so he can take the chocolate that his mother offers sympathetically. It’s soothing to chew angrily on a piece of chocolate that can’t fight him back. “It’s  _ stupid.  _ If  _ stupid _ Thor and his  _ stupid _ teammates hadn’t had a  _ stupid _ rivalrly with  _ stupid _ Jotunn Academy and hadn’t moved their  _ stupid _ gazebo I wouldn’t be dealing with any of these  _ sttupid  _ feelings right now.” 

“I know dear, I know how hard it is for you to be forced to get to know people beyond your snap judgements.” Frigga consoles, and while Loki strongly suspects she’s being purposefully patronizing, he ignores it. 

“The world asks  _ so much  _ of me,” Loki laments. 

“I know dear, I know,” Frigga says over the sound of the bell ringing, with the well worn patience of someone who has dealt with Loki for more than a decade and a half and loves him despite his, well,  _ everything _ . “And I’m afraid that bell means the world is asking one more thing of you, and that’s that you go to P.E.” 

“But  _ Mother,”  _ Loki says, betrayed, “I’m  _ sick.”  _

“Realizing that you’re capable of feelings isn’t an illness Loki, go to class.” 

**_~*~*~*~INTERLUDE~*~*~*~_ **

“-And this is why I think it’s quite possible that I’ve been cursed. I suspect Amora or Hela as the source of the curse. Maybe both.” Loki is saying, while Bucky is only dimly focused on him, his eyes instead laser focused onto Steve. Steve who is currently _flirting_ with Bucky’s mortal enemy, _Sam_ _Wilson._

“He’s doing this to spite me,” Bucky says vehemently, stabbing his sushi with his chopsticks forcefully, and startling Loki out of whatever tangent he’d been on. 

Loki looks at Bucky, looks across the cafeteria, and then looks back to Bucky with an expression filled with jugement. Loki absolutely and completely  _ cannot  _ talk however because Bucky had to spend last night helping Loki analyze the entire  _ Thor Situation. Twice. _

“He’s straight,” Loki says flatly. 

“What? No. Steve’s not-” 

“I’m not talking about Rogers, you idiot.  _ Wilson _ is straight. I have never met anyone straighter. He and Sharon were caught canoodling literally two days ago under the bleachers.” 

“Isn’t Sharon-” 

“A lesbian? Judging by her penchant for vests, you would think so, but apparently she plays for both teams.” 

“ _ Interesting.”  _ Bucky says, propping his elbows up on the cafeteria table and leaning closer, “Wait- I see what you’re doing. You can’t distract me from my misery.” 

“Are you sure? Because I really feel like if I manage it we might be able to go back to focusing on mine. It’s much more important.” 

“Wait, what are you miserable about again? Besides everyone else’s existence of course.” 

“I already  _ told you,”  _ Loki sounds offended, but also, Loki is usually offended so Bucky doesn’t apologize for ignoring him, “I’ve realized that my feelings are a lot more-” 

“Wait, oh my god. He’s looking at me again,” Bucky sits up a little straighter and flicks his hair over his shoulder, wishing he’d left it loose today instead of making Loki braid it back for him. It’s always so much more effective when it’s loose and the other person can imagine the smell of Bucky’s vanilla shampoo wafting from perfectly formed waves. “Quick, pretend I said something charming and funny.” 

Loki bares his teeth in what might be an attempt at an amused smile but also might be a threat. 

“Close enough, thank you.” 

“Are we not going to focus on  _ my  _ problems?” 

“Absolutely not, no,” Bucky says, because Steve is on his feet and moving  _ closer.  _ “Hi, Steve” Bucky breathes, wiggling his fingers in a wave when Steve is in front of him. 

“I deserve so much better than this,” Loki says, taking his tray and abandoning Bucky to Steve and all his  _ Steve-ness.  _

“I was wondering,” Steve says, rubbing at the back of his neck in a way that Bucky finds stupidly endearing, so much so that he barely hears the next earth shattering words that come out of Steve’s mouth. “If maybe you want to go to prom with me?” 

**_~*~*~*~END OF INTERLUDE~*~*~*~_ **

“Aren’t you like half in love with him?” Loki asks into his phone as he makes his way across campus after the final bell, towards the gym where he’s supposed to meet Thor for a meeting he’s dreading. “I’m failing to see what the issue here is.” 

“Okay, but-” Bucky starts, and Loki nearly tunes him out, but he doesn’t, which is a testament to what a good brother he is, “what will  _ you  _ do if I go with Steve? We were supposed to go together.” 

“Ew, don’t use me as an excuse to not go out with the idiot. I refuse to be used in such a way,” Loki tells Bucky, “I’ll be resplendent either way, whether I go stag or not.”

“I’m  _ trying  _ to be a good brother,” Bucky insists, but he’s always been a bad liar. Or at least, he’s never been as good a liar as Loki. 

“Sure. It has everything to do with loyalty and nothing to do with the fact that Steve Rogers’ lumberjack arms turn you into an extremely awkward twelve year old girl.” 

“Exactly. It’s all to do with the sacred bond we share.” 

“Oh my god, go to junior prom with the idiot or else I’ll personally never forgive you,” Loki says, because he is, genuinely, the best brother and no one can tell him otherwise. With that, he jabs the end call button on his bedazzled iphone and tucks it into his pocket before being met with the sight of his own giant, torturous, terrible, no good, very annoying, very dumb blonde. God dammit. 

“Am I interrupting?” Loki asks as he crosses the court, eyeing whatever it is Thor’s doing with a basketball. Dribbling? Loki guesses, though to be entirely fair he’s not entirely sure how the whole sport works and what any of it’s called because he tends to fake a tragic injury of some sort when it comes to the sections of P.E. that involve contact sports. “Wait, never mind, I don’t care.” 

“No, I was just finishing up,” Thor says, and he looks a little sweaty in a way that Loki convinces himself  _ isn’t  _ appealing. “C’mere.”

Loki stares at the ball Thor is holding out to him. “Are you going to teach me how to touchdown?” 

“No, that’s football.” 

“Is that not what this is?” Loki blinks, innocent. 

“This is basketball.” Thor informs him patiently, even if Loki suspects he knows that Loki is, in fact, fucking with him.

“Mmmh, sure, you can call it whatever you want. You’re still moving a ball across an area of space while risking head and neck injuries and wearing hideous jerseys,” Loki says, plucking at the aforementioned jersey that Thor is currently wearing, “The only difference is that football has much more flattering pants.” 

“Ah-ha, so you find the pants flattering?” There’s a brightness to Thor’s eyes, like he thinks this is funny, and Loki  _ will  _ murder him for it. 

“No. Of course not. Why would I- I have to go-” 

“Nuh-uh-uh, not so fast. You agreed to learn this since  _ I’ve  _ been putting in all the effort learning  _ your _ choreography.” 

“This is hardly fair. You thought dancing while acting and holding a tune would be easy, that’s not my fault. I’ve never claimed this was easy. I shouldn’t be forced into these situations. I don’t deserve this-” Loki argues, even as Thor is enveloping Loki from behind in- oh god, very strong arms that Loki is already aware of but  _ still,  _ it is  _ terrible  _ to be constantly reminded. He’s going to  _ sue.  _ He’s not sure who, exactly, but there  _ will  _ be a lawsuit. There’s a ball pressed into Loki’s hands, and Thor’s hands over Loki’s, adjusting the way he holds it. “This is an OSHA violation, I’m sure of it. It’s against the Geneva Convention.  _ Something.  _ It violates  _ something.  _ I’ll be calling my lawyers.” __

Thor has, unfortunately for Loki, grown incredibly used to Loki apparently, and ignores him. 

“You need to hold the ball like this, and then-” He brings Loki’s arms up and together, they throw the ball, “You shoot.” 

The ball bounces off the rim and onto the tacky wood floor, bouncing across the gym as Loki turns on Thor. “I told you I couldn’t do it! But you made me anyway! Why does no one-” He stops, suddenly realizing how very,  _ very  _ close Thor is, and how Thor’s arms are still around Loki, and how Thor is looking at him,  _ Loki,  _ in this very moment. 

Oh no. Oh  _ no.  _ This is very bad.  _ Very, very, very bad.  _ Loki has accepted that he has something that could be tangentially referred to as  _ feelings  _ for Thor. He can deal with that. He can accept it and embrace it within himself. He can’t deal with  _ this  _ yet though. This makes it  _ real.  _

Thor leans down. 

Loki leans up. 

Their lips nearly brush. 

The door to the gym clatters open. 

“Hey, have you seen your brother?” Rogers asks as Loki leaps away from Thor like he’s a particularly vicious snake. “He kind of bolted at lunch today and I wanted to talk to him about it- I think I should apologize maybe?” 

Loki groans. “I can’t believe you two,” His life is the  _ worst _ . “Check the rooftop garden. He likes it there.” 

“Oh. Okay, thanks.” Rogers says before disappearing again and leaving Thor and Loki standing in the gym staring at each other.

It lasts just long enough for Loki’s self control to snap. 

“Oh, fuck it,” Loki says, grabs Thor by the front of his jersey and drags him in for a kiss despite the fact that he can’t, if he so chooses, blame this one on rehearsal or really, anything but the fact that he wants to put his face on stupid Thor Odinson’s stupid face. 

“That wasn’t an impromptu rehearsal moment, right?” Thor asks, somewhat stunned following the kiss. 

So, okay, maybe, Loki  _ can  _ blame it on that, but then Loki will be put back into the position of having feelings and not knowing how to deal with them. Loki might be very good at fooling himself, but he’s not good at being outright dumb enough to repeat the same actions that leave him miserable over and over again. At least not very often. 

“No. I’ve realized that, unfortunately, despite my best attempts, I do not, in fact, hate you deeply, and do, in act, feel something, that could be conceived, possibly, maybe, as some sort of  _ feeling  _ for you.” 

“That was very hard for you, wasn’t it?” Thor asks, and it’s with that same sort of bright, happy look in his eyes like he’s  _ enjoying  _ Loki’s suffering. Loki’s going to kill him. With his mouth. On Thor’s mouth. It seems a suiting death. 

“Extremely so. I demand that you take me somewhere and buy me french fries to make up for the pain and suffering you’ve caused me this semester.” 

🎶

The musical exceeds even Loki’s high expectations. 

It turns out that a bunch of over-achieving jocks put the same sort of effort into theater that they do into bringing Asgard High home state championships, which is deeply,  _ deeply  _ surprising and also somewhat disturbing to Loki. He loves when the theater program does well, but he hates when people don’t operate how he thinks they will. 

The set pieces that Rogers had done look great, Sif is a merciless stage manager who keeps them all in line, and Thor’s friends that Loki begrudgingly accepts calling “The Warrior’s Three” because he doesn’t want to learn their real names do have a strange sense of comedic timing that makes the audience laugh at all the points they’re supposed to. 

None of this even gets into the fact that Loki and Thor (but Loki especially) are incredible at their roles. 

So, yes, the musical does well, and Loki is still riding high on the thrill of a standing ovation when junior prom rolls around and he’s climbing into a limo filled with his classmates alongside Bucky. 

The gym, when they get there, is decorated for the occasion- streamers that might look like jellyfish if one squints hanging from the ceiling and a large sign that says “UNDER THE SEA.” 

(Loki had spent a large part of the fall semester arguing that it was age based discrimination that senior prom gets a rented ballroom, but junior prom is stuck in the gym. In a turn that surprised absolutely no one except Loki himself, his protests had been noted and then ignored.) 

Bucky has already disappeared with Steve to go suck face, or even more disgustingly, discuss  _ shared interests,  _ and so has the rest of their friends, which means Loki is left to take in prom from his position hanging onto Thor’s arm. 

“Is that your  _ sister?”  _ Loki asks, squinting suspiciously at where Hela is standing with the other chaperones near the refreshments. 

“I think she’s here to ruin every moment of my life, yeah,” Thor says, and he sounds so serious that Loki almost feels something he could describe as pity. 

“Unfortunately for her, she can’t ruin a moment that I feature prominently in. I overshadow everything,” Loki says, dragging Thor away from the refreshment table and towards the dance floor. 

“That’s true,” Thor says and it’s earnest enough that it makes Loki feel  _ deeply  _ uncomfortable but also pleasantly warm and like he’s been turned into cotton candy. 

“I know. I really am incredible,” Loki says as he places Thor’s hands on his waist, and Thor, refusing to follow Loki’s implicit orders, wraps his arms fully around Loki until they’re pressed close together. 

At some point, the home ec teacher who’s a stickler for these things will come tell them there needs to be space between them, just barely keeping herself from insisting they leave room for Jesus, but for now, Loki settles into it. 

“Also true.” Thor says, and he’s still earnest, but he’s got the sort of tone that Loki truly knows means he realizes exactly how much being this sappy will kill Loki and he  _ enjoys it.  _

“Ugh. You’re enjoying this too much. I hate you. We’re breaking up as soon as this dance is over. I can’t tolerate this level of happiness,” Loki says and Thor, the giant, blonde, incredibly beautiful  _ asshole,  _ ignores Loki and kisses him right there on the dance floor.

_ The End _

_ (We’re All In This Together plays over the metaphorical speakers) _

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this! I'm not saying there's a sequel, but I imagine a hypothetical one where Frigga and Odin start dating just to make this whole thing really awkward for Loki. 
> 
> I mostly post nonsense and things about captain america and his boyfriend, bucky barnes, but if that interests you you can find me at @attackofthezee on twitter.


End file.
